Mar 23 2013:
Is the fact that I am mentioning the beautiful, azure waters of Havasu Falls at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, in a discussion of free will an example of free will in action, or was it predestined that you would post the question and I would respond thusly? Is all of life scripted and we are unable to do otherwise? Am I compelled by fate to harm another person, or can I freely, intelligently choose to do no harm? If there is no free will there is no responsibility.

Mar 23 2013:
There was a time that I really didn't know if there was free will, but I have since decided that I do. That doesn't mean that most do. Those who want it find it.

I have learned that I have (we have) the ability to create my own reality. To become adept at creating a satisfying reality, I had to purge my belief system of the tangle of beliefs I clung to. Some were conflicted, some were untested assumptions, and some were simply mistaken. When I did that, I discovered what freedom means - in a physical life.

I am free to choose happiness or I am free to choose to kill myself. That's freedom. If I choose to support a mind-set not chosen by me - and that serves a select group of people (such as the wealthiest or religious leaders or political leaders) - then I will call my slavery "freedom" and I will ask question such as the one you asked.

Ultimately - in the final sense - who knows? No one.

As to destiny, that is determined by your choices moment by moment.

There are some well-educated theorists who postulate that we may be a simulation. Are we a computer program already programmed to make whatever decisions we make moment by moment. I don't think so, but I cannot know so unless the program allowed me to. Because of my experience as I transitioned from allowing my mind to be owned to discovering the nature and beauty of freedom, I don't believe that this is a viable solution.

Mar 23 2013:
If we did not have free will, what then would be the purpose of life on Earth? If in the afterlife we shall be judged by God for our actions, and we did not freely do them, how could we be judged by them? Since there will be an afterlife, which will have something to do with our time on Earth (if not then the time spent would be meaningless), the connection must be our actions on the Earth, as nothing else but the soul that makes rational (or irrational) choices moves on. The temporal stays in its realm of being, the dust returns to dust so to speak, and the immortal soul returns to the realm of its creator. Since our actions are the basis of our time of Earth, if our actions have no basis as we do not control them, then isn't life in essence meaningless? However, that cannot be true, as the God, the Greatest Good, wouldn't have created something that is in essence meaningless. Therefore, there needs to be substance for our actions, the substance being our control over it. And of course we could choose the bad things if we had the ability to choose. That is human nature, due to our free will. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That does not mean that free will is a bad thing, and that our lives would be "better" if we didn't have it. If we didn't have the ability to do something bad, we would not have the ability to do something right. First, since it is given by God, it cannot be a bad thing; it must be good, as God is Good. Our ability would only be to do what is, which can neither be right or wrong, for right or wrong simply is in the nature of choosing between the eternal and the temporal. We mustn't look at free will negatively in the short term aspect of the 70 or so years we have to live. Free will is given by God so that we will gain the knowledge of Him that is necessity for whatever is in the afterlife to join him, through the process of living on Earth.

Mar 23 2013:
If we didn't, would we understand that if that was not willed? If we did, would we understand that if we choose not to do so? OR did I get it backwards? If you expected me to believe that, you wouldn't have said it. Did you believe that you knew what you thought or do you really believe what you thought you knew?

Mar 22 2013:
Who knows if the mind operates at a level that is indistinguishable from the rest of the noise. What is'nt there to be measured does not exist. they can pick up individual thought generation and apply it to control external devices but where is the mind?

Mar 22 2013:
In our thinking ... we are most free.
In our feeling life, we are less free.
In our life of will, we are the least free.

We are only free in our life of will to the degree that our actions are penetrated by the free thought.
When we act without thinking, we are acting unfreely. When we think carefully over all the things that are influencing a decision, when we bring a decision to full waking consciousness, we are then handling in freedom.

Mar 22 2013:
A car backfires and you jump in panic. Did you choose to jump, or did your brain process the sound and cause your body to react?

If we accept you chose to jump, then I guess you'd believe we have free will.

However, if you accept that our brains reacted before our conscious mind had time to process the noise and make a decision, then you can see how in some cases free will doesn't really exist. From there we can move on to ask whether, based on our brain biology as well as all our other life experiences which are stored as memory and used to make decisions, we truly have free will or whether we mostly have the perception of free will. Perhaps in fact, decisions are made at a much deeper level than our own consciousness, and we reflect on these decisions with the conscious mind as if we chose to do A or B.

Of course, this presupposes the mind is inextricably tied to the brain, which is a physical organ, and eschews the concept of a separate, unique, sentient soul.

Mar 22 2013:
We have free will, we know what is bad and what is good. We can choose both, but there is good and there is bad consequence for things what we have done. Of course it would be easier if we were controlled, but that period is under the age of 18, and from that point we are on our own.